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Here's some extra fun stuff that didn't make it into the paper today ("Council cuts budget to avoid tax increase"), in case you were dying to know all the gory details of this year's budget debate.

Council asked the city manager to keep the tax rate flat for next year. He offered them nearly a dozen ways to save or make the city money to get there.

Here are some of the cuts they approved and items they kept in the budget:

Ways the city will save money:
$2 million: cuts for road repaving
$200,000 — no coliseum suite renovations
$1.65 million — delayed payoff of parking deck debts
$60,000 — reduced staff at lakes
$200,000 — cut landscape contract
$600,000 — revenue from increased refuse fees
$200,000 — savings from a rolling hiring freeze

Items the council will keep in the budget:
$550,000 — housing and community development fund
$65,000 — street light fund
$679,000 — nonprofit funding
$100,000 — neighborhood grants

Things I'd still like to know: how many street lights can you buy for $65,000? And how many roads will you pave with $2 million?

City Council is considering new rules for its speakers from the floor session, a regular public comment period at the beginning and end of each council meeting.

Councilman Zack Matheny recommended that council limit the first session of the meeting to city issues only. The session at the end of the meeting could be used for everything else.

The city's legal department ruling: No way. City Associate General Counsel Jamiah Waterman says the Constitution of the U.S. and state law are pretty particular on this point.

Government can limit the "time, manner and place" speech takes place. But not the content.

Limiting speakers to city business would not be content-neutral, Waterman concludes in a memo to council (which you can read here.)

And -- highlighting a point made by Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small and others -- Waterman says "city business" is ambiguous, vague and gives too much discretion to council to determine who can and cannot speak.

"Depending up the circumstances, topics as varied as the war in Iraq, global warming, abortion or A&T's homecoming events can be considered city business,"Waterman wrote.

So, the speakers from the floor can keep doing what they do. Score one for the First Amendment, and the local residents of Crazytown.

Most of the time, we simply ignore the calls asking for us to investigate the great ketchup famine of 1996 or the relationship of some elected official to Area 57.

This morning was a touch different when a caller asked about who pays for these bonds, particularly the school bonds.

The caller wanted to know what happened to the North Carolina Education Lottery proceeds that were intended to build new schools. Then the caller implied that people who don't own property in Guilford County are probably the folks who voted for the bonds, because renters don't have to pay property tax.

We reported last year that the North Carolina Education Lottery wasn't putting up the revenue that was expected. Here's a handy .pdf showing the breakdown from the 2006-07 ticket sales.
While the lagging lottery isn't the only reason bond supporters used to justify that the schools needed the money, it is one of many factors.

As for the property-owners-only-pay-property-tax argument, it's true only to the extent that the person who owns the land pays the property tax bill. Rest assured, every time rent goes up for a person, a part of that increase also goes to cover higher property taxes.

Update: Here's today's story on the 2007-08 county budget. What do you want your board of commissioners to fund?

After Tuesday, when most bonds in Guilford County received the nod from voters, you can likely count on a couple things happening in the 2008-09 budget.

Some commissioners will likely mention that voters could have made things easier in by passing the quarter-cent sales tax. Property tax may well go up. And there could even be more cuts.

All that comes at a time when food stamp claims are increasing at the Department of Social Services, the Sheriff's Office was required to add 28 deputies at the beginning of the year that will be permanent positions and many of the community groups that were cut in last year's budget want to get back on board.

One Soopster mentioned after tonight's Primary results came in that "the real election begins tomorrow."

Nay. Budget season begins tomorrow.

Now all those things that Guilford commissioners talked about - particularly tax increases - are going to come up.

And the referenda that passed only technically gives the board the clearance to issue the bonds. They don't have to, and they don't have to issue them for the full amount.

Soon we can see what the commissioners think about this upcoming budget season.

At the Hillary Clinton rally today we ran into a Guilford College senior wearing a body-sized triangular suit that had a photo of a slice of pizza.

"Loving pizza is the common denominator of human existence," Johanna Breed told Scoop. The statement might be the truest piece of almost-political rhetoric that Scoop has ever heard
(27 second mp3).

Breed said she was there to shoot for a spot as Hillary's running-mate. But after a while Breed showed her true colors. She supports Barack Obama in the presidential primary, and only happened to have the costume on hand.

"I'm actually an Obama supporter, but I just thought this was funny," she said. Though if Clinton approached her, the Guilford College art major might reconsider, Breed said (44 second mp3).

Clinton's press secretary hasn't gotten back to Scoop about the chances of a Clinton/Pepperoni ticket in 2008.

A half-hour of recognitions preceded the regular business in Thursday's Guilford County commissioners meeting, and they spanned from naming bridges to hearing bagpipes.

In a somber moment, the board named the Eugene/Elm Street bridge over I-40/85 in honor of L.E. Pace, a state trooper who died while on-duty in 1963.

The High Point Central High School Men of Valor Excelling program was recognized for receiving the President's Volunteer Service Award.

And then there were bagpipes. Redhead Commissioner Linda Shaw (she's a Republican, too)read the proclamation recognizing April as national Scots, Scots-Irish Heritage Month. Bagpiper David Thomas serenaded the board. (The bagpipe starts at 37 minutes in the video.)

Also, May is now the month for foster care awareness and mental health month. And The week starting May 4 is arson awareness week.

Looks like most candidates for office in Guilford County have been keeping their nose clean.

A background check of those involved in contested primaries next Tuesday found very few who have had brushes with the law, not counting minor traffic violations.

Those who have include two candidates for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

Incumbent Billy Yow, who faces two Republican primary opponents in his bid to keep the District 5 seat, was convicted in 1981 of driving while impaired.

E.H. Hennis, who is in the Republican primary for two at-large seats up for grabs, was convicted in 2000 of creating a bomb hoax during a commissioners meeting in 1998.

Apart from those candidates, you've got some speeding tickets, but that's about it.

Of late, the Greensboro city council has been inundated with folks who'd like their three minutes at the public podium.

At the council's public comment session at the beginning of each meeting, there are citizen groups asking for help or promoting an event. Then there are folks who have less important things to do with their designated public comment time ("City council, you've been Punk'd").

With that in mind, Councilman Zack Matheny floated a plan to limit the 30 minutes of public comment to city-related issues only. Folks who want to talk about anything else can wait for the second public comment period at the end of the council meeting.

Matheny said some people were taking advantage of the council.

"We need to set policy for the city of Greensboro. Let's focus on city business," Matheny said.

His request was met by all the right questions from his fellow council members. How could they implement this new rule fairly? How can they do it without violating constitutional rights of free speech? What about issues that don't concern the city, but might be interesting to hear?

They didn't vote on his proposal, but instead asked for the city legal staff to do a little research first.

Continue reading "Move your soapbox to the end of the meeting" »

Guilford County's health department saw its initial request to improve access to healthcare in the 27406 ZIP code reduced by half to $250,000 in preparing the 2008-09 budget, according to Merle Green, director of public health.

That reduction could be a harbinger of more lean times for other county departments as County Manager David McNeill works on his recommended 2008-09 budget. The Board of Commissioners will review the budget in May and approve it in June.

This year's budget season could be especially difficult, considering that voters may approve up to $671 million in bonds, and the board already asked McNeill to make a budget with no property tax rate increase in addition to the one he'll recommend.

Any new bond will likely cause the county's property tax rate to rise.

Along with the county department requests, several community groups traditionally receiving funding were cut from the current 2007-08 budget and hope to get back on the books in 2008-09.

And one more thing could hold sway for some board members. The election itself.

The May 6 primary will settle the bonds decision and three races for commissioner. But two At Large commissioners and the District 4 race will be settled in November, after the budget is approved.

Oh, and everything seems to be getting more expensive.

In all those factors, are there any issues that you hope are covered in our work on the 2008-09 budget? List them in comments, or e-mail me.

Scoop found Guilford County Commissioner Steve Arnold by phone Thursday, who said he might be ready to talk sometime about the bankruptcy proceedings and other things he’s facing lately.

Arnold used words like “politically fatal” to describe how he’s handled talking about the case so far. Which is to say that Arnold hasn’t spoken much on it at all.

When Scoop asked Arnold if he’d be available soon — he does have another court date May 8 — he said that he may get back to us sometime around then.

We're looking forward to the conversation. Arnold said that he's got some factual information that he wants out there, and that our reports were a little off.

"I can point out all kinds of mistakes and various issues that were wrong," he said.

Well, that can happen when we don't get someone's side of the story, or they don't want to talk.

Inside Scoop is always open.